This week's AusPharm poll asked people how they handles requests from patients for 'loans' of medication when they had run out of scripts. It followed an editorial about this published on AusPharm on Wednesday. The results are show at right.

Fully 39% of respondents admit to supplying such items in contravention of the relevant rules and regulations. What does this tell us? That pharmacists have little regard for the law? Or that perhaps the laws need to be changed to reflect the conditions under which we practise in 2007. What do you think?

Pharmacy students and pharmacists who come from major regional centres across Australia
are now eligible for some of the allowances provided by the Australian Government as a part
of the Rural Pharmacy Workforce Program.

Criteria for access to Rural Pharmacy Scholarships, Student Placement Allowances and the
Rural Pharmacist Pre-Registration Incentive Allowance have been extended to include localities
in Pharmacy Access/Remoteness Index of Australia (PhARIA) Category 1, outside of
metropolitan areas. This includes towns such as Dubbo (NSW), Ballarat (Victoria) and
Devonport (Tasmania).

As part of the current NPS 'Generic medicines are an equal choice' campaign, NPS has re-iterated that there are some instances when switching brands is not safe or recommended.

According to NPS, use of generic medicines must benefit the consumer without placing him or her at increased risk of medicine misadventure. For example, if a patient is likely to become confused because of a change in the appearance of a medicine or packaging, then switching brands would not be in that patient's best interest.

API and Alphapharm announced the completion of a deal yesterday that sees API become the 'preferred distributor' for Alphapharm's generics and Alphapharm the 'preferred provider' of generics to API's branded pharmacies Priceline Pharmacy, Soul Pattinson, Chemworld and Pharmacist Advice. The initial agreement is for 5 years and will take effect from the end of this month.

'Listers will have read last week about the UK decision to implement similar laws to Australia regarding PSE.

As a further demonstration that here in Australia we have our scheduling laws about right, the United States FDA announced last week that it was considering introducing a 'pharmacist only' or 'behind the counter' (BTC) category for medicines.

However, as you can see from the results of this week's poll below, 'listers' voting intentions seem to be different to those of the general public, which very much suggest a comfortable ALP victory in the upcoming election.

We'll run this poll again the week before the election and see if the campaign promises influence listers' voting intentions.

Studies of healthcare provision show that many patients do not get care that is consistent with the best available evidence, a claim made in a recent editorial published in the October issue of Australian Prescriber titled 'Turning knowledge into action'.

NAPSA position statement: Pharmacy Students in the Workplace : 04/10/2007 :

At this year's Annual General Meeting of the National Australian Pharmacy
Students' Association (NAPSA) in July, several
new position and policy statements that represent the views of Australian
pharmacy students were endorsed.

The first of these, Pharmacy Students in the Workplace,
outlines the expectations that NAPSA believes should be placed on both the
employer and their employee pharmacy student.

After the positive vote for Nicola Roxon in last weeks poll, AusPharm is interested in who 'listers will actually vote for in the upcoming Federal election?
Please tell us by casting your vote in today's AusPharm poll.

As usual, we invite comment on this poll topic but, please, keep it health related.

Effective September 27, 2007 GenRx has changed its name to Apotex. The change is in name only with no changes to ownership or company contacts.

Of principal interest to pharmacists will be the name change of the GenRx generics which will now have the prefix APO rather than GenRx. For example, GenRx Simvastatin becomes APO Simvastatin. The product name changes will be phased in over the next two years.

Hot water or vinegar treatment for venomous sea creatures? October Australian Prescriber out now : 02/10/2007 :

With summer approaching, more people will be visiting Australian beaches. Coastal waters are the home of several venomous sea creatures that cause stings and other injuries. Marine injuries or stings are common, but the majority cause only minor effects and do not require medical intervention.

How to manage injuries caused by marine creatures is discussed in an article by poisons expert Dr Geoffrey Isbister in the October issue of Australian Prescriber, published yesterday.

The ACT Government has introduced legislation which makes it mandatory for
pharmacists to record the sale of all pseudoephedrine products and the purchaser's details, which
can then be used by law enforcement agencies to identify and track suspicious sales.